The United States will push China hard to open up restricted access to its vast state-controlled procurement market, the Treasury's top international official said Tuesday.

"We will push hard to ensure that China opens its large government procurement market at all levels of its economy on terms that are comparable to those of other large markets," said Lael Brainard, the Treasury's under secretary for international affairs.

Foreign firms have little access to sell goods and services to China's government, despite China's membership in the World Trade Organization.

Beijing committed to sign a WTO procurement agreement as part of its accession in 2001, but has not yet done so.

Brainard, who participated in the annual US-China strategic and economic talks held in Beijing last week, also emphasized that the Obama administration continues to seek better protection of intellectual property rights from the Asian giant.

Brainard described the May 3-4 talks as yielding "encouraging progress."

Brainard expressed hope that China will continue to make its yuan currency more flexible, after allowing it to appreciate by 13 percent against the dollar in real terms over the past two years.

Reiterating long-held US concerns that China is keeping the currency undervalued to keep its exports cheap, gaining an unfair trade advantage, Brainard said that moving to a market-determined exchange rate will be a powerful tool as China rebalances and opens its financial system.

China to slap duties on steel tubes from Europe, Japan
Shanghai (AFP) May 8, 2012 - China said Tuesday it would slap duties on imports of some types of steel tubes from Europe and Japan, following an eight-month probe into goods at prices below market levels.

China would from Wednesday impose duties of 9.7-39.2 percent on specialised stainless steel tubes sold by European and Japanese companies, the Ministry of Commerce said.

The ministry found imports of the tubes -- mainly used in industrial boilers -- caused "substantive harm" to Chinese industry, it said in a statement on its website.

European companies affected included a subsidiary of Spanish industrial group Tubacex and the Italian unit of Germany's Salzgitter Mannesmann Stainless Tubes, the ministry said.

It also named two Japanese companies, Sumitomo Metal Industries and Kobe Special Tube, among others.

The affected firms could submit evidence to the ministry to counter the findings of the investigation within 20 days, it said.

Tuesday's move comes as Chinese companies face accusations of "dumping" products on overseas markets.

The United States is now investigating whether Chinese producers are using predatory pricing to sell solar cells in the American market.

The US move come as Washington steps up efforts to protect domestic manufacturers from Chinese products that it also alleges benefit from an artificially undervalued currency.

US President Barack Obama in March took direct aim at China when he ordered the creation of the Interagency Trade Enforcement Center to expedite unfair trade complaints from US business.

Since China joined the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001, it has been the subject of 26 trade complaints lodged by other countries, while it has brought eight cases against others, according to the WTO website.